The Truth Within Me
by Nami-san625
Summary: My joy which was lost, my eyes that were blind from the truth, the will which I refused to carry on... They saved it all. They saved me." A story about Yumi and her story. Prequel to The Curse of the Oceans Sea.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, first of all I must thank you for clicking on this fic of mine and (hopefully) reading it. **

**If you're wondering what this is, it is about a girl named Yumi and her background with pirates. The reason I did this fic, was because I felt that I needed to explain her story more than I did in The Curse of the Oceans Sea.**

** So, here goes nothing...**

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Chapter One

It was like any other day on the Thousand sunny, Each Mugiwara no Kaizoku was being their typical selves and doing their typical things. But it all started when Usopp spotted a small rowboat as he was fishing to add to the collection in the aquarium.

"Oi, Chopper! Come here!" he called as they approached the rowboat.

Chopper rushed over, only to see a girl, lying there unconscious. She had cuts and bruises all over her body, but had a large gash on her side and forehead. He ran over to let down the anchor and quickly ran back. "Everyone, come here!" he yelled.

"Hey, get out on front deck," repeated Zoro into the intercom.

Everyone, absentmindedly gazed down at the tiny object that rocked back and forth as the waves moved.

"Hurry! Bring up on deck! She has fatal wounds that need to be treated immediately!" anxiously yelled Chopper.

Sanji swiftly jumped from the deck onto the small boat below, making sure that it didn't tip over. He gently picked her up, being very cautions, and climbed back up to the Thousand Sunny.

"Now, bring her to the sick bay!" Chopper was frantic, but at the same time, excited to have a patient.

"Hey, wait... she dropped this," said Nami as everyone else followed Chopper. She stood there, looking at the locket that had fallen out of the girl's clutched hand. She let out a sigh and put it in her pocket, then followed her nakama into the sick bay.

One by one, each Mugiwara no kaizoku left the sick bay, leaving Chopper being to tend to the girl.

After a few hours time, Chopper finally cam out. "I'm done," he sighed in relief. "She's still asleep, and she'll probably be like that for a while."

"Now, with that said, LET'S EAT!!!!!!!!!" exclaimed Luffy

"I guess that's my cue to start cooking."

when dinner came, it was as crazy as usual. Luffy was constantly reaching across the table, trying to take other peoples food, while occasionally getting his hand hit with a fork, or a kick from under the table.

But through all the chaos that happened earlier in the day, night still came, and the whole ship slowly became quiet, looking ahead to the next day

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The next morning, the Mugiwara no Kaizoku had a discussion on what to do with the girl, over breakfast. In the end, they voted Nami to talk to her.

Nami walked into the sick bay, thinking of every word that she was going to say. She opened the door, only to see the girl, sitting on the bed, staring at the wall ahead.

"Hi, my name's Nami, what's yours?" she asked, sitting in the chair at the desk.

"M-my name's Yumi," she replied, quiet and slow.

"So..." Nami tried to think of various things to asked her, but one question kept popping into her head; so she decided to ask it. "so, what were you doing on that boat?" she finally asked.

"That's none of you business!" Her reply was very quick, and almost immediate.

"Okay, okay. Geez, what's your problem?" Nami was very surprised by her anger-filled question.

"...All pirates are the same. They do horrible things to get treasure. They'll go to such extremes as to destroy villages and innocent people. They even betray their own nakama for their lives." There was a great tensity in the room.

"Well, not all pirates are like that. Our crew is different. We fight for our naka-"

"I know you think the same. You hate pirates. Don't Try to deny it, it's oblivious." She tried to act as if she knew everything, and every reason.

"You shouldn't say things without thinking them through. If I hate pirates, then why am I one?"

"I said, don't try to deny it; and that means, don't try and cover it up, You should think before you say things."

"Okay, I don't know what's with you, but don't think that you should hate pirates because they ruined your life. You know, you're the only one who's life has been ruined, by pirates. Don't think that you're the only one who lived a hard life."

"This coming from a pirate? Ha! I bet you've lived a perfect life; so you aren't the one to speak."

"Don't just assume things... My mother... actually, my step-mother. She was... a victim to pirates. She was shot, right in front of my eyes. Shot.. by the Fishman pirates..." Nami stared straight at the floor as she spoke.

A silence fell upon the room. Not a word escaped either of their lips. They did nothing; nothing but sit there. It was the kind of silence where no one knew what to say.

Nami stood up and headed towards the door. She turned around before leaving the room, and tossed Yumi her locket. "Here, you dropped this."

She left the room without any further words, and without any glances black.

"Hey Nami," said Usopp, "did she say anything?"

"Her name's Yumi."

"Anything else?"

"N-no."

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**A/N: Does that seem familiar to anyone? Well, if it does, that's probably because it's the same thing as the first chapter of my fic: The Curse of the Oceans Sea, except with some edits and modifications. But I must tell you, this fic WILL NOT be the same thing. I just needed this (and the second) chapter to introduce it. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: ****Hello everyone! First off, I just realized forgot to write a disclaimer, so I'll do one right now.**

**Disclaimer: I don not own One Piece, or any of its characters, or places, or anything. If i _did _own One Piece, I'd be the genius that Eiichiro Oda is today. The only character that i own (so far) is Yumi. ****  
**

**One of my charaters down, many more to go... But we'll get there... sooner or later (more like later, but that's okay!)**

Chapter Two

Many times throughout the day, Sanji would go down to the sick bay and offer Yumi food; but every single time, she would decline.

Chopper went down there many times to change her bandages and give her medicine; and every time he tried to speak to her, she would just ignore him.

No matter how many times they tried, the Mugiwara no kaizoku could never get her to move from her bed, or to talk, or even do anything. After many tries, they finally gave up and let her be. And by the time night came, she still didn't come out, even for dinner.

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It was the middle of the night, when Sanji heard a crash coming from the kitchen. Instantly, he thought it was Luffy, so he got out of bed, without bothering to see if Luffy was still asleep or not, and went to yell at him.

When he entered the kitchen, he was expecting Luffy to be stuck in the fridge lock, but when he turned on the lights, he saw that Luffy wasn't there. Instead, there were broken dishes and a guilty Yumi, standing in front of the fridge.

"So, you _are _hungry," he said.

"So... what's it to you!?" she said in reply.

"Nothing really... except, it makes me wonder why you're sneaking food in the middle of the night, instead of taking the ones I offered you."

"Well, I can't trust you! You _are_ a pirates after all. You could've put poison n it, or something. That _is_ what pirates do."

"Oh, really..." said Sanji, looking at her true nature that was being revealed to him. He paused before he continued, "you must be hungry. Here I'll cook something up for you."

"Okay then... but I'm gonna watch you, and look out for poison."

He smiled before he said, " Okay, you can watch, if you want."

He eyes sparkled as he laid the plate in front of her, where she almost instantly started eating it, not leaving any one crumb behind.

"That was really good! You're a really good cook... but that doesn't mean I trust you," sh quickly finished. "If I"m not alive tomorrow, them my ghost will haunt you for the rest of your life."

He let out a chuckle as he cleared her plate and washed it. He started to talk to her as he returned to the table. He trailed off, when he noticed she had fallen asleep.

He brought her back to her room and went back to sleep.

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The next morning, they had a meeting over breakfast, on what to do with Yumi.

"So, what are we going to do with her?" asked Franky.

"How about we get her to join our crew?" suggested Luffy and his smile.

"No. I know she won't join us. No matter how hard we try," said Nami.

"Why? What's wrong? We're good people," said Chopper.

"It's not that; and it's not us. It's pirates in general. She is completely against the idea of pirates," she told them.

"She was saying that she didn't, and couldn't trust pirates," added Sanji.

"Hmm... that reminds me of someone," said Usopp.

"Huh, who?" asked Chopper.

There was a pause before Zoro finally spoke, " We don't need to bring the story up. It was all the way back in the East Blue, anyways."

"But I still think she should join our crew!" stammered Luffy.

"You all _do _realize that he's never gonna stop."

They all nodded their heads as their captain continued on. They proceeded on with their decision-making conversation for a while. Throughout their meeting, Luffy kept his persistentcy; but finally, they agreed that they'd take her input first.

"So, who's gonna talk to her?" asked Franky, not sound very interested in volunteering.

"Nami should do it. She'd probably understands her the most," commented Usopp.

"Yeah, Nami should talk to her," said Luffy, sound like he didn't comprehend what they were talking about earlier, and just decided to say something.

"Okay, I'll talk to her," she said, avoid any arguments that may arise.

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It was shortly after their meeting when Nami went to talk to Yumi. She let out a sigh before opening the door to the sick bay, already predicting the outcome.

The girl flinched as she heard the door squeak open. "Wh-what are you doing here?!" she exclaimed.

"I have a proposal from our captain," she inhaled before she continued speaking. "He wants you to join our crew."

"Well, tell him that I decline," she quickly replied. "I don't want to have anything to do with you."

Nami didn't respond; she just remain silent, waiting for her reason.

"What kind of pirate asks their captive to be their nakama?" she asked, not caring if she got an answer or not. "Well, you know what, I'd rather die than become some damn pirates' nakama." That words that left her mouth were bold; very bold, and she knew it. But each of those words were true,

"Well, if you want to die so bad, be my guest," said Nami, pulling out Zoro's sword that he had left in the sick bay earlier before.

"Go ahead; strike. I don't fear death," she said, with the sound of pride.

"Well then, I guess you're not afraid of hell either," said Nami, sounding like she had no concern for the girl.

But Yumi wasn't shocked of faltered by the cold words that were said to her.

"Yeah, I'm not," she said, emotionless.

Nami didn't consider Yumi's last remark. She didn't bother to respond; she just stood there, speechless.

"So, you gonna kill me or not? If you're gonna do it, then do it. Joining pirates is worse than death," she said, her last few words under her breath.

"Ungrateful brats don't deserve to live." As she spoke, she swung the sword towards the girl's head, the intention of killing in mind.

The sword was centimeters above her head when Nami heard her name called out. Suddenly Chopper came running through the door.

"Nami!" he yelled. "What are you doing?" He expressed astonishment as he rushed in, seeing the scene that was portrayed before his eyes. Nami, a sword at hand, right above Yumi's head; and Yumi, sitting on the bed, expressionless.

"What am I doing? I'm giving this little brat what she wants."

Chopper wasn't buying it; he didn't believe that what she said was true. "What are you talking about?"

"This girl here doesn't want her life. She'd rather die than be on this ship," she told him, everything straight-forwardly. "I will say that she doesn't deserve to live if she isn't grateful for her life."

"Well fine. You'd probably kill me anyways," she finally spoke.

There was a silence in the room. No one spoke a word or moved a muscle. It became nerve-wracking just standing there, waiting for someone to speak up.

No one would've done anything if Nami didn't just walk out of the room, slamming the door behind her. They would've continued to mindlessly stand there; but everyone just seemed to snap out of their dazed looks when the door slammed shut.

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**A/N: I'd like to thank you for reading this chapter (if you actually read it):D The only real reason i said that, is 'cause i have nothing else to say right now... But I turely thank you people who read this.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**: I have actually had this chapter saved on my computer for a while now. I was just...I don't know...Well, I just didn't post it. Well, thanks to **Xx Falcon's Eye xX**, I have been inspired to update. When I first read this chapter, I instanly thought: this needs editing. And so, that is what I did. And here it is. Well, enjoy!

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Chapter Three

Nami walked back to the front deck, pondering the words that Yumi had said. '_Life is nothing... I don't fear death...' s_he mentally repeated. _'Why do I even bother? She's just a stupid kid who doesn't deserve to live.'_

She walked through the kitchen doors, looking absentminded, but actually deep in thought. She ignored the chaos around that was called "lunch" and made her way towards the table, her eyes never moving from the wooden floor beneath her. As she plopped down onto the bench, everything became quiet, and her nakama instantly began their questioning.

"So, how was it?" asked Usopp, opening up the subject.

Nami looked away, avoiding eye contact with everyone around her. To her, this seemed more like an interrogation than a simple chat with her nakama. But why did she feel this way? Why didn't she want to tell them? Nevertheless, she ignored them, acting as if she didn't hear his words from the beginning. But this wouldn't work for long.

"Nami-san, what did she say?" Sanji repeated as he continued washing dishes at the sink.

When they received no answer from her, Franky opened his mouth to repeat the question once more. But by then, she had started to speak.

"Life is nothing...I don't fear death, so just kill me now. I'd rather die than be on this ship..." she mumbled in reply, just barely audible to the ones around her.

"What?" asked Franky, confirming what he thought she said.

"... She told me to kill her..."

Everyone displayed a face of shocked confusion as Usopp asked, "B-but why?"

She let out a deep sigh as she opened her mouth to answer them."She said, that being on a pirate ship, is worse than death. She said that she'd rather go to hell than be here," she told them.

"But... but why? Why would she say something like that?" asked Robin, not with a worrying tone, but with one more of curiosity.

"She hates us, just because we're pirates. We haven't even done anything to hurt her; on the contrary. We saved her life! ... So she has no reason to hate us. But it's because we're pirates..."

"So, then what are we going to do with her?" finally asked Zoro.

"I say we give her what she wants: death."

"No," Luffy quickly responded. "She says she'd be happier if she were dead. We can't kill her just because she's given up on life. If we do, then she'll never be happy."

"What?! What the-"

"You can't be happy if you're not alive to see it!"

Silence fell over the group of pirates as he had cut Nami off. Everyone looked at their captain, as he shouted out with much passion in his voice. Yes, this was their captain; a man who would fight for anyone he believed in, and would never stop until the fight was won.

"What are we to do with her?" Robin asked once again.

"...Bring her to me. I think I need to talk with her."

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**A/N:** Well, here it is. Very short, but oh well... And yes, I know that I said I was going to put this on hold, but why should I if i already have the next chapter? Well, with that said, review!!


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